C. Raz

Bio: C. Raz is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Sensory design & Conjoint analysis. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 75 citations.

From sensory marketing to sensory design: how to drive formulation using consumers' input ?

Abstract: Companies need to continuously innovate to maintain market leadership. When the market is overloaded the challenge consists in creating innovative products able to attract and satisfy consumers. The general aim of this research is to set-up an operational protocol that aids in creating innovative products using a sensory marketing approach, i.e. involving consumers at different stages of the process and demonstrates the validity of this protocol. The chosen product – a specific category of drink – has been duplicated by many competitors; therefore, it is necessary to create again differentiation by improving its sensory characteristics. First, a qualitative phase explored the concerned food universe and the possible sensory variations of the product across the five senses. Following this phase, a limited number of factors were selected for sample formulation: colour intensity (4 intensities), flavouring (3 types), label type (soft touch vs. hard) and pack size (standard vs. oversize). Next, a statistical experimental design was used to select a partial number of all combinations to be tested quantitatively. Finally, a quantitative phase allowed for evaluating the liking and concept fitting of 12 scenarios from the experimental design and data was analyzed with a conjoint approach. The results showed that the main factors which drive consumer preference for this concept are colour intensity and flavouring. Pack size and label type are taken into account by the consumer to a lesser extend. The ideal combination of the studied factors was also determined and lead to an agreement between product developers and marketers. This experiment showed the feasibility of the proposed multi-sensory design method based on mixed qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Hector Berlioz’s Neurophysiological Imagination

Abstract: There is, Berlioz writes in his essay “De la musique en général” (1837), “a strange agitation in my blood circulation: my arteries beat violently … a trembling overtakes my limbs and a numbness my hands and feet, while the nerves of sight and hearing are partially paralyzed.” The composer here is not, as one might think, describing the symptoms of an opium overdose, but rather the powerful effect of “good music” on his own body. Challenging our tendency to dismiss Berlioz’s musical writings as merely overheated Romantic effusions, I argue that the remarkable medical detail presented in his arguments reveals a hitherto neglected dimension of nineteenth-century engagement with the embodied effects of music. Contextualizing Berlioz’s claims within the neurophysiology of his age, and in particular the physiological psychology of Cabanis, the anatomy of Bichat, and the acoustic theories of Lamarck, I recover the medical and scientific epistemes that motivated the composer’s assertions about the power of music to effect embodied and emotional transformation—a constellation of ideas that I term his “neurophysiological imagination.” An analysis in these terms of some of Berlioz’s major compositional innovations reveals how both his writings and his music explore an explicitly neurophysiological dimension of early Romantic listening. Specifically, I propose that Berlioz repeatedly attempted both to represent and to induce an experience that was of great interest to the artists and audiences of his day: an overpowering mental and physical response to music experienced as an embodied, neurophysiological form of the sublime.

Extrinsic and intrinsic food product attributes in consumer and sensory research: literature review and quantification of the findings

Abstract: As recent years have seen a growing interest in integrating consumer and sensory science, this paper aims at presenting a systematic literature review of empirical studies investigating the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic food product attributes on consumers’ food decision making. Both an electronic search through a digital library database and a forward–backward search identified relevant international research. The final set of studies (n = 602) was coded in terms of research methods, intrinsic and/or extrinsic product attributes, consumer response measurement, study location, sample size, study origin, and food type. Although the importance of some product attributes such as taste, label, and price are very well recognized, other variables such as appearance, smell, sound, texture, and packaging have been neglected in research so far. Findings also show an imbalance of applied methods in consumer and sensory research. Surveys/questionnaires and acceptance tests are well-represented, whereas other methods or combinations thereof were rarely or never applied. Food liking was found to be the most frequent way to obtain consumer food evaluation data. Mirroring an increasing importance of product attributes in consumer food decisions, marketing managers and product developers today are well advised to take simultaneous effects of extrinsic and product attributes into account. This article calls for future studies with more holistic study designs to avoid the risk of misleading conclusions in both consumer and sensory research.